René Ambroise Jean Eugéne Vierne (11 March 1878 – 29 May 1918) was a French organist and composer.
Pushed by his mother, he entered the Catholic Seminary at Versailles in 1889 where he studied music with the Canon Poivet.
Not feeling a vocation to the priesthood, he left and instead devoted himself to music, taking lessons in organ, counterpoint and fugue with his brother Louis.
In 1897, Vierne obtained a post as organist at the Chapel of the Convent of the Dominicans, the Annunciation, rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris.
At the outbreak of World War I, René Vierne was mobilised and moved to the front on 8 August 1914.